August 14, 1945

Aug. 14, 1945

Dear A.P.

I haven't had any letters from Stoneham in several days so I guess you all did get off on the trip to Maine.  When I first heard the idea I kind of had my doubts whether you could get everyone agreed on it but you seem to have.  I hope everyone had a good time; you are all probably home right now.  I only wish I could have gone along and I could have if I hadn't come here to Randolph.

Well we flew in that big bird the B29 yesterday but had to get up at 0300 in the morning to do it.  Our crew was a kind of observatory crew and didn't do any flying.  We just went along to be checked out as scanners.

Special photo of Air Force bombers from the 1930s through the late 1940s. A Douglas B-18 "Bolo"; a Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress"; a Boeing "B-29 Superfortress" and the B-36 "Peacemaker" dominating the group photo with a 230-foot wingspan. Taken at Carswell AFB after receipt of the first B-36 in 1948. 

If you have ever seen pictures of a 29 you will see in the waist a blister window.  A scanner sits in each one of those windows and reports the movements of the flaps, wheels and anything else that moves.  It is just a check on the instruments in the cockpit and a safety measure.  For the first 14 hours we co-pilots will have to sit there and observe.

Blister window directly to the left of star.

When they take these planes up for instruction rides they have 2 crews aboard.  The two pilots ride in the cockpit and learn to land the ship and the 2 copilots ride in back and scan.  After 14 hours they start crew coordination and the pilot and c o-pilot ride in the front while the other crew rides as scanners.

Scanning isn't so bad but it can get boring.  They have a chair back there for you to sit in but it faces the wrong way so we devised our own chair which when we got through looked more like a bed.  I took several parachutes and filled up the seat until it was as high as eh blister and then laid the seat cushions on top which made a bed high enough to look out the window.  It made it very comfortable. Besides that I had a magazine which I hadn't read so I was well entertained for the 5 hours we were up. Just the same I had to be on my toes all of the time.  Anyway it wasn't so bad.

The newspapers have announced that Japan has accepted our terms.  Whatever that means I have no idea but I can tell you that here on Randolph it means not a thing, classes go on as usual.  I would not surprise me to see us finish our training and then go overseas on patrol missions.  I suppose all the civilians of the country are out having a celebration tonight but I will be in class until 2200 which is not my idea of a celebration.  However I have nothing special to celebrate.  In fact if they asked for men to go home I would not raise my hand because I want to finish 3 years before going home.  It will mean a lot in getting a commission in the Reserve.  Also I wouldn't be able to get home for a month or so and then some time to get straightened out so I wouldn't be able to go back to school this year.  If I should wait till next June I will have a better idea what the civilian army will be like and might even consider staying in but if I got out next June I would have time for a good vacation and to get straightened out before going to school.

The Army is the best job I have ever had and probably will be the best I will have for a long time.  Very few fellows my age can make $240 a month and have as few expenses.  The army has taken good care of me and paid me well at the cost of my freedom to do as I want.  If the war is over things won't be the same but the ones who are qualified to stay in will have a very good deal.  Randolph Field is a permanent base and before the war all married officers had their own homes which cost them no more that $45 a month for everything including heating lighting and water.  Tell me where you can get a modern 6 room house for that.  Of course it is never ours but as long as you are on the field it is and no one can put you out.

Well so much for the Army.  It has its advantages but then there is the other side.  I haven't yet heard from anyone at home since I got here and that was 10 days ago.  I'll be looking for a letter soon.

With love

Austin.

July 19, 1945

San Marcos

July 19, 1945

Dear Esther:

Well here is the letter you have been expecting.  I suppose I am a little slow but really I am just short of time.  Most letter writing breaks into my social life and you can't have that.  We are going to have some movies here in class now so I have a lot of time while they try to figure out how the contraption works.

We are scheduled to fly tonight but not many fellows will show up. Most of them went on sick call and are off flying for a couple of days.  That means we will only have to fly a couple of hours instead of the regular 4.  

Pop wrote and said you went to see Grandma recently.  I wish I could get to see her again but this darn leave situation is a pain in the neck.  I guess Grandma would like to see me too.

The moves are all over.  They were a couple of U.S. propaganda films about Japan.  You have never seen them and probably never will.  They are called "Our Enemy Japan" narrated by Joseph C. Grew. It was the 4th time I had seen the picture so you can imagine I was slightly bored to say the least.  I just wish someone would wise up and burn some of the films everyone in the army has seen 4 times.  I guess they are saving them for the kids they draft, so they can bore them awhile.

You should have seen the wonderful certificate I got from the civilian defense which by now much be pretty well gone by.  Anyway probably Pop got the same thing saying that they were "grateful for my patriotic service and loyalty during World War II".  I showed it to everyone and the consensus of opinion was that I should be able to go to heaven with all the big dogs now.  Maybe I should just get out of the Army I am needed so badly at home.

Oh yes, by the way, there is a way to get around this leave deal.  So far 10 fellows have left.  Each one has given 3 stock excuses, either their wife had to go home to have a baby and that they had to take her, or that they were going to get married, or that a long lost half brother is coming home after 3 years in the So. Pacific and they want to see him.  Now which one should I use?

Each week I get the paper and look at all the news from the servicemen.  It seems that all the kids younger than I am are getting into the war and getting pretty ribbons while I sit on my dead fanny here in Texas.  You should get a ribbon for being stationed here but they won't hear of such a thing.  All you ever see in the papers around here is how Texas and the United states are winning the war.   They sure think it is a great state.  What I was going to say is; what am I going to tell my kids and their kids when they ask what I did in the great war?  I will have to make up a good story and stick to it.

I guess everyone has noticed that I have a box number.  They had such a mess over at the mail section when they had to go through a whole stack of mail just to find my one little mangy letter that they decided to make boxes.  Now you can go in and look in your box and if no mail, they don't have to look through a stack of mail.  By the way I was only kidding about the one letter, I really get more than I write and am thankful for it.

I always get letters from Pop but seldom write.  The same is true with Mother but I write to Mother  little more frequently.

Well I have got to cut this gab and scram.  I don't know where or what I will do until 7:30 when we fly but I guess I can find something.

Mother has a birthday coming up on the 1st of Aug. is that right.  Anyway if I send anything it will be on the First.

With love

Austin